When attempting to hitch a trailer onto a towing vehicle, proper alignment of the trailer tongue and towing vehicle's hitch ball is required. Due to the driver's inability to view the alignment of the trailer tongue and hitch ball, several attempts or a second person's assistance are often required before a successful coupling is accomplished. Overcoming this problem requires a device that enables one person to guide the trailer tongue directly onto the hitch ball of the towing vehicle.
Prior inventions have attempted to address this burdensome process, however, some of the inventions require the owner to permanently mount their devices onto your vehicle by welding, therefore restricting the range of lateral movement between the towing vehicle and trailer. Others attempt to solve this problem for vehicles with a receiver hitch, not vehicles with a bumper and hitch ball. Some of these inventions even use a v shaped guide, but fail to use the v shaped guide to its full potential.
Miller U.S. Pat. No. 3,879,062, attempts to help remove the stress caused by the v shaped guide on a vehicle as described in Eichels et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,773,356. Miller's design helped alleviate the stress caused by other v shaped guides, but it resulted in a complicated device requiring numerous pins, chains, screws, and bolts.
Chakroff et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,185, made another attempt using a v shaped guide for a receiver hitch. This design improves earlier v shaped guides by having an adjustable guide wall means, mounted to the interior surface of the v shaped guide. However, only the guide walls are removable, the rest of the v shaped guide is permanently welded to the vehicle. Another problem with this device, is that the trailer tongue can only can be guided above the hitch ball, not onto the hitch ball itself.
Baskett U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,392, makes an attempt to improve receiver hitches also. Its v shaped fence attempts to do the same job as a larger v shaped guide, however, the small size and shape of this fence limits its use. In addition, this assembly requires a specific measurement prior to fastening the hitch ball to the base in order to provide sufficient clearance for the trailer tongue.
Johnson U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,184, attempts to simplify previous patents by the use of a two part assembly. Unfortunately, the base piece remains on the bumper or trailer tongue when driving. This device also sits high on the receiver hitch and may block the view of the license plate of the vehicle when a trailer is not in use. The box shaped design requires a precise alignment of the trailer hitch and towing vehicle prior to its ability to serve as a guide. In general, to obtain the maximum benefit of this assembly, the width of the guide should be increased.